1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component and, in particular, to an electronic component including a multilayer body including a coil.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of related-art electronic component, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-97244 describes a multilayer inductor. FIG. 6 thereof is an exploded perspective view of the multilayer inductor 100.
As shown in FIG. 6, the multilayer inductor 100 includes ceramic sheets 102a to 102h and coil conductors 104a to 104d. A multilayer body is formed by laminating the ceramic sheets 102a to 102h. External electrodes (not shown) are provided on the opposed side surfaces of the multilayer body.
The coil conductors 104a to 104d are electrodes, each taking the shape of a partially notched annular ring. The coil conductors 104a to 104d are connected to one another so that a coil is formed. The coil conductor 104a is connected in parallel to the coil conductor 104b with an identical shape. The coil conductor 104c is connected in parallel to the coil conductor 104d with an identical shape.
For this reason, the multilayer inductor 100 has a direct-current resistance value lower than that of a multilayer inductor not including the coil conductors 104b and 104d. As a result, the current capacity of the multilayer inductor 100 is increased.
However, as will be described below, the multilayer inductor 100 has a problem in that its resonant frequency is lowered. More specifically, the coil conductors 104a to 104d are opposed to external electrodes (not shown). Therefore, stray capacitances occur between the coil conductors 104a to 104d and the external electrodes. In particular, since the coil conductors 104a and 104b are connected in parallel and the coil conductors 104c and 104d are connected in parallel in the multilayer inductor 100, the sum of the areas of the opposed portions of the coil conductors 104a to 104d and external electrodes is larger than the sum of the areas of the opposed portions of the coil conductors 104a and 104c and external electrodes in a multilayer inductor not including the coil conductors 104b and 104d. As a result, the resonant frequency of the electronic component 100 is significantly reduced due to increases in stray capacitance.